Billen

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I will be submitting an EE application beginning of 2018 and before I do that, I will be going on a small scouting trip to Toronto this November.

Would anyone be willing to meet up for a coffee or drink (my treat) and share with me his/her experience from living and working in Toronto? I'm an IT professional (working as a Project Manager) so any tips around potential job opportunities in this area will be more than welcome.

Thank you all,
Vassilis

J-A-UK

I have no clue about IT jobs in Toronto but otherwise might be able to help out / throw you some clues etc

Coffee's good - Canada is bigger than Toronto - You know that that ?

evets

Not sure what coffee shops you have in your neck of the wood, but here in Mississauga coffee and good are not words I would not put together in the same sentence.
I suppose after 7 years living in Australia, where coffee IS taken seriously. I have somewhat become a coffee snob, somewhat to my dismay and disbelieve! Always thought the coffee chains I frequented in London were good, shame Melbourne spoiled that for me

Colleagues at my office really do not get why I do not like Timmies or the drip feed coffee in the office or the cafes in the building.

Anywho, back on topic for the OP.

I work in the IT land and my company is based in Mississauga(GTA) suburb, west of Toronto. Since I have only been here 8 months and cannot give you a probably realistic view of my experiences job hunting here as relocated with my company.

Chatting to colleagues the IT job market is booming here in GTA/Toronto. Lots of tech companies based here(GTA/Toronto). All the big Canadian Banks/Telcos located here.

Kitchener-Waterloo area, far west of Toronto area is kinda classed as the Silicon Valley part on Ontario. Lots of startups.

Are you planning to live and work in Toronto?
Do you have a rough idea of the salary you would be looking at? I mention this, as Vancouver like Toronto, the most expensive cities in Canada but offer the lowest median wages.

Do you have PM/ITIL/Agile/Scrum/Other certs?

Canada like Australia, use the "we want/need local work experience card" a lot from what I can gather. So your first role here could take longer to secure, possibly.

I may be able to meet up with you depending on the date and location.

Good luck with your relocation.

DandNHill

I'm clueless about IT stuff but my boss should be recruiting a few .net developers in the next 6 months or so.
I doubt he'd be in to doing a sponsor thingy but he's open to hiring people on work permits I know.

Billen

Thank you - I'll PM you to get something scheduled.

And yes, I do know Canada is bigger than Toronto!

Billen

I believe J-A-UK meant that "coffee sounds good" rather than "coffee in Toronto tastes good" I know Australians are passionate about their coffee, but for the rest of us, we have to make do with what we find in other places in the world.

Now, to more important things..

I'm an IT Project Manager (focused on Global Infrastructure and "high visibility" projects) working for a law firm in London. I've got Prince2, PMP, PROSCI (Change Management), Agile, ITIL certifications and a Master's in Information Systems Management.

This is what, primarily, driving my decision to move to Toronto - banks, IT, finance, law (compared to the rest of Canada). Well, that and the fact I don't speak a word French

I plan to work in Toronto, but live in the suburbs. I know that living downtown is a tad expensive and part of this 'scouting' trip is to look at different neighborhoods and make a wishlist of places we would like to rent (initially) a place.

Having a look at PayScale and other websites, I think a Senior IT Project Manager gets paid close to C$100K, which is around 6-8% over the median range. Calgary appears to be paying the most, but with the oil price going down, I don't know if all the good jobs are gone.

I've heard about the "Canadian experience required" story.. it is what it is .. I'll have to try and work around that obstacle (somehow!).

Thanks for your response, I'll PM you and see if we can get something scheduled.

dbd33

FWIW, I've been in the computer business in and around Toronto since 1981 and have only heard of that issue on this board. I've hired, or know of the hiring, of people, sight unseen, from the UK, South Africa, the US, the middle east, other locations I've forgotten. It's routine in the case of people from India. All of these people came as contractors, those that I still know continue to be contractors. One took a management role at a major bank but couldn't get by and is now contracting again. (A wife, two children and a house in Aurora requires two good full time salaries).

I think contracting is the way to get a footing. Firms are much more willing to take on a contractor, disposable at 10 minutes notice, than an employee, it can take hours or days to offload a loyal employee, especially one with many years of service. Note that contracts here very often run for multiple years and it's not uncommon for them to last a decade so there's very little difference in terms of job security.

Billen

Thank you for your feedback. I would expect the whole "Canadian experience" to be a sort of requirement if you're migrating from countries where validating your career experience and skills might be a bit challenging. But, coming from the UK, US, etc. I wouldn't expect it to be a problem. However, I've read about it and I'm prepared in case I'm asked something like that.

I don't mind contracting as it has anyway been in my radar and it's something I would like to do in the near future. I think I'll need to start looking at what's required to become a contractor in Canada.

dbd33

I can help with that:

- an incorporation. This is necessary to distance the contractor from the agent and the client for both tax and liability purposes. It's customary to use a "numbered company"; the name of the corporation is the next free number so, 12345678 Ont. Inc. The approach is common for all manner of businesses, lorries will often have something like "Bill's Transport, a Division of 12345678 Ont. Inc." written on the doors. Separately, you can register a trade name if you wish, subject to paying for a search, so "12345678 Ont. Inc. o/a Billen Consulting" or whatever.

- an HST number, issued automatically upon incorporation.

- a contract!

You can incorporate yourself or you can have a lawyer/accountant do it for you. The latter is about $1,000 total. The downside is that there's a cost to wrapping up a corporation so long term contractors end up paying bank charges to maintain accounts for half a dozen dormant companies.

Billen

So, basically, same process (more or less) as the UK. I already have a limited company in the UK, where I am a director. I have set it up myself so not overly stressed doing the same in Canada.


Thank you for that, that's much appreciated!

Partially discharged

Is there an issue when a contractor literally only has 1 client. In other words all invoices go from dbd33 Ontario Inc to one client only. Does that cause issues with CRA?

dbd33

Potentially so, there is such a thing as a "deemed employee". One does not want to be one of those. One's employer absolutely does not want one to become one of those. The incorporation helps somewhat but having multiple clients is very much desirable.

I'm surprised that the CRA is not more aggressive about this sort of thing. It used to be that consultants were expensive and worked for a client short term. Now they're commonly hourly paid employees engaged on a contract basis to allow the employer to avoid paying for benefits such a "statutory" holidays, vacations and healthcare. Examples of what the Gruaniad calls the "gig economy". The shift is more than a tax issue but it seems to me clear that the former type of consultant deserves a different tax treatment than the latter.

As an aside, contractors should, IMO, run a mile from any enterprise connected with "insourcing".

Tsymons2

I can meet up with you. I i'm also a project manager in IT and have lived in Toronto since 1989.

Billen

sorry for the delayed response .. thank you for getting back to me, I'll dm you to arrange a meet up.

SchnookoLoly

Drop me a PM and I can put you in touch with a few IT recruiters in the GTA. I don't work in Toronto, so not conveniently placed for a meet-up, but can give you a few connections that may be able to help you out.